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2. A lot of people are afraid to say what they want. That's why they don't get what they want.

3. Sometimes you have to be a bitch to get things done.

4. I'm tough, ambitious, and I know exactly what I want. If that makes me a bitch, okay.

5. When I'm hungry, I eat. When I'm thirsty, I drink. When I feel like saying something, I say it.

6. Listen, everyone is entitled to my opinion.

7. Strong women leave big hickies.

8. I am my own experiment. I am my own work of art.

9. I have the same goal I've had ever since I was a girl. I want to rule the world.

10. When I get down on my knees, it is not to pray.

11. Better to live one year as a tiger, than a hundred as a sheep.

12. Never forget to dream.

13. To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything in return. To just give. That takes courage, because we don't want to fall on our faces or leave ourselves open to hurt.

14. Children always understand. They have open minds. They have built-in shit detectors.

15. I wouldn't have turned out the way I was if I didn't have all those old-fashioned values to rebel against.

16. I won't be happy till I'm as famous as God.

17. Straight men need to be emasculated. I'm sorry. They all need to be slapped around. Women have been kept down for too long. Every straight guy should have a man's tongue in his mouth at least once.

18. Everyone probably thinks that I'm a raving nymphomaniac, that I have an insatiable sexual appetite, when the truth is I'd rather read a book.

19. To me, the whole process of being a brush stroke in someone else's painting is a little difficult.

20. I think that everyone should get married at least once, so you can see what a silly, outdated institution it is.

21. I am a survivor. I am like a cockroach, you just can't get rid of me.

22. He (singer Prince) reeks of lavender. It turned me on, actually.

23. I'm anal retentive. I'm a workaholic. I have insomnia. And I'm a control freak. That's why I'm not married. Who could stand me?

24. I stand for freedom of expression, doing what you believe in, and going after your dreams.

25. It takes a REALLY big man to fill my shoes.

26. I always thought I should be treated like a star.

27. I'd like to be more involved in making the world a better place.

28. Effeminate men intrigue me more than anything in the world. I see them as my alter egos. I feel very drawn to them. I think like a guy, but I'm feminine. So I relate to feminine men.29. There are moments when I can't believe I'm as old as I am. But I feel better physically than I did 10 years ago. I don't think, Oh God, I'm missing something.

30. I miss New York. I still love how people talk to you on the street - just assault you and tell you what they think of your jacket.

31. I would like to see the Pope wearing my T-shirt.

32. I feel just as hungry today as I did the day I left home.

33. It is difficult to believe in a religion that places such a high premium on chastity and virginity.

34. I always thought of losing my virginity as a career move.

35. Catholicism is not a soothing religion. It's a painful religion. We're all gluttons for punishment.

36. I became an overachiever to get approval from the world.

37. I'm not interested in being Wonder Woman in the delivery room. Give me drugs.

38. My priority is my family, absolutely, 100 percent.

39. I am rich and famous. I have a talented and gorgeous husband and two beautiful children. I could go on.

40. To be brave is to love someone unconditionally, without expecting anything in return. To just give. That takes courage; because we don't want to fall on our faces or leave ourselves open to hurt.

41. I sometimes think I was born to live up to my name. How could I be anything else but what I am having been named Madonna? I would either have ended up a nun or this.

42. I'd like to think I am taking people on a journey; I am not just entertaining people, but giving them something to think about when they leave.

43. I try to have thick skin, but every once in a while I read something that someone says about me, and it's so slanderous and moralistic and it has nothing to do with my music.

44. I want to be like Gandhi, and Martin Luther King, and John Lennon... but I want to stay alive.

45. I'd love to be a memorable figure in the history of entertainment in some sexual, comic, tragic way. I'd like to leave the impression that Marilyn Monroe did, to be able to arouse so many different feelings in people.

46. I think the ultimate challenge is to have some kind of style and grace, even though you haven't got money, or standing in society, or formal education. I had a very middle, lower-middle class sort of upbringing, but I identify with people who've had, at some point in their lives to struggle to survive. It adds another color to your character.

47. I think you can be defiant and rebellious and still be strong and positive.

48. Be strong, believe in freedom and in God, love yourself, understand your sexuality, have a sense of humor, masturbate, don't judge people by their religion, color or sexual habits, love life and your family.

49. I laugh at myself. I don't take myself completely seriously. I think that's another quality that people have to hold on to... you have to laugh, especially at yourself. I do it in most of the things I do, and most of the videos that I make and most of my performances. Even in my concerts there are so many moments when I just stood still and laughed at myself.

50. In everyday life I am quiet and reserved, not the housekeeper type but cool and relaxed. I don't get up in the morning wearing false eyelashes and I don't wear fancy underwear when I'm cooking popcorn. I'm a nice little ducky.

51. Because I've taken my clothes off in public doesn't mean that I've revealed every inch of my soul.

52. Sometimes I look back at myself and remember things I used to say, or my hairstyle, and I cringe.

53. I hate polite conversation. I hate it when people stand around and go, "Hi, how are you?" I hate words that don't have any reason or meaning. Also I hate it when people smoke in elevators and closed in places. It's just so rude.

54. You have to be patient. I'm not.

55. I know the aspect of my personality, being the vixen, the heartbreaker and the incredibly provocative girl is a very marketable image -- but it's not insincere. You just can't take it seriously.

56. The worst thing about being famous? I think it's what everybody says... the lack of privacy and the idea that you're not really allowed to make mistakes and everything that you do is viewed under a microscope.

58. I have had many challenges in my life, including some very big ones when I was young and I've learned a lot of valuable lessons along the way. I have seen life from just about every angle you can see it from.

59. I was sacked from Dunkin' Donuts for squirting the donuts jelly all over the customers.

60. Not only does society suffer from racism and sexism but it also suffers from ageism. Once you reach a certain age you're not allowed to be adventurous, you're not allowed to be sexual. I mean, is there a rule? Are you supposed to just die?

61. I'm not a feminist, I'm a humanist.

62. My father was very strong. I don't agree with a lot of the ways he brought me up. I don't agree with a lot of his values, but he did have a lot of integrity, and if he told us not to do something, he didn't do it either.

63. I'm anal retentive. I'm a workaholic. I have insomnia. And I'm a control freak. That's why I'm not married. Who could stand me?

64. I'm a very old-fashioned girl. Marriage is a great thing when it's right. And I did celebrate it and embrace it, and I wanted the whole world to know that this was the man I loved more than anything. But there's a price to pay for that, which is something I realize now. Ever since I was in high school, when I was madly in love with someone, I was so proud of that person. I wanted the world to know that I loved him. But once you reveal it to the world -- and you're in the public eye -- you give it up, and it's not your own anymore. I began to realize how important it is to hold on to privacy and keeping things to yourself as much as possible. It's like a runaway train afterwards.

65. I could probably bring up a child as normal as I can live my life. I surround myself with people who don't treat me like a celebrity or a freak or whatever, and I would do the same with my child.

66. My having a child is not for public consumption. It's not a career move. It's not a performance to be judged or rated. Nor is my role as a mother.

67. Family is everything. Family comes first. It's not what I expected it to be, but nothing ever is.

68. The last thing I want is to raise a brat. We could definately go down the wrong road. I don't want Lola to have everything she wants. I want her to appreciate things, and not to be presumptuous. I want her to have manners and social graces.

69. Ever since my daughter was born I feel the fleetingness of time. And I don't want to waste it on getting the perfect lip color.

70. Lourdes really is the love of my life. I don't want to traipse around with nannies and tutors. I think it's important for children to stay in one place, to socialize with other children.

71. Obviously, my tastes and my priorities have changed, Just because I'm a mother doesn't mean I'm not still a rebel and that I don't want to go in the face of convention and challenge the system. I never wanted to think in a robotic way, and I don't want my children to think that way, either. I think parents should be constantly questioning society.

72. Gay men are perfect men for girls who are tough. They're not threatened by strong women, and they're usually very in touch with their feelings and pay attention to details. I've always had an affinity with gay men.

73. I don't trust any man who hasn't kissed another man.

74. I liked my body growing up and I wasn't ashamed of it. I liked boys and didn't feel inhibited by them. Maybe it comes from having brothers and sharing a bathroom. The boys got the wrong impression of me at high school. They mistook forwardness for promiscuity. When they don't get what they want, they turn on you. I went through this period when all the girls thought I was loose and the boys said I was a nymphomaniac. The first boy I ever slept with was my boyfriend and we'd been going out a long time.

75. With the crucifixes I was exorcising the extremes that my upbringing dwelt on. Putting them up on the wall and throwing darts at them. And the "Boy Toy" thing was a joke, a tag name given to me when I first arrived in New York because I flirted with the boys. All the graffiti artists wore their nicknames on their belt buckles.

76. I loved nuns when I was growing up. I thought they were beautiful. For several years I wanted to be a nun. I saw them as really pure, disciplined, above average people. They had these serene faces. Nuns are sexy.

77. I think that life is a paradox and you have to embrace that in your work and your belief systems ... you can't be a literalist, and that's the trouble that people always find themselves in. That's why people always hit a wall with any of my stuff, because you can't take it literally.

78. The fact of the matter is that you can use your beauty and use your charm and be flirtatious, and you can get people interested in your beauty. But you cannot maintain that. In the end, talent is the only thing. My work is the only thing that's going to change any minds.

79. I love horses. I think I may have been one of Henry VIII’s knights in another life, riding through a great forest.

80. I don't care anymore if people dress like me, now I want them to think like me.

81. If I was a girl again, I would like to be like my fans, I would like to be like Madonna.

82. I never wish I had a different life. I am lucky to be in the position of power that I am in and to be intelligent.

83. Being blonde is definitely a different state of mind. I can't really put my finger on it, but the artifice of being blonde has some incredible sort of sexual connotation. Men really respond to it. I love blonde hair but it really does something different to you. I feel more grounded when I have dark hair, and I feel more ethereal when I have light hair. It's unexplainable. I also feel more Italian when my hair is dark.

84. I have the most perfect belly button. When I stick my fingers in it, I feel a nerve in the center of my body shoot up my spine.

85. I've always wanted to be taller. I feel like a shrimp, but that's the way it goes. I'm five-foot four-and-a-half-inches -- that's actually average. Everything about me is average. Everything's normal, in the books. It's the things inside me that make me not average.

86. It's not my nature to just kick back.

87. I think passive beauties have their place in the world. It's hard for me to relate to that.

88. People think they will wake up one day and I'll be gone. But I'm never going away.

89. I've never really lived a conventional life, so I think it's quite foolish for me or anyone else to start thinking that I am going to start making conventional choices.

90. A lot of people are just really confused by me; they don’t know what to think of me, so they try to compartmentalize me or diminish me. Maybe they just feel unsafe. But any time you have an overtly emotional or irrational, negative reaction to something, you’re fearing something that it’s bringing up in you.

91. I just like the idea of pills. I like to collect them but not actually take them. When I fell off my horse, I got tons of stuff: Demerol and Vicodin and Xanax and Valium and Oxycontin, which is supposed to be like heroin. And I'm quite scared to take them. I'm a control freak.

92. I wanted to be a boy when I was growing up because I was in love with all of the male dancers I knew and they were all gay. And I thought, Well, if I was a boy, they'd love me. So I got into role-playing then. That's where it began. I remember when I was still in high school, I had cut my hair off really short, and I was totally anorexic - I had no boobs - and I would dress like a boy and go to gay clubs and my goal was to trick men into thinking I was a boy.

93. Fame is a by-product. Fame is something that should happen because you do work that speaks to people and people want to know about your work. Unfortunately the personality of people has taken over from the work and the artistry and it's this thing now that stands on its own. I don't think one should ever aspire to being famous.

94. I must have been Japanese in a previous life. I'm pretty sure I was a warrioress. I can't explain it, I just know. I'm good at fighting - fighting with a big sword.

95. If we can elect an African American as president, we can support gay marriage! Defeat prop 8! We will not give up!

96. When I experienced what was going on first hand, I just got sucked into the whole thing. Thank God I did. I met some amazing people and, hopefully, I’ve changed the lives of a lot of children. Just as important, I think it’s been an incredible growing and learning experience for me. (About her work in Malawi).

97. Publicly humiliating someone for your own gain will only come and haunt you. God’s going to have his revenge.

98. I don't take drugs. I never did. All the feelings that drugs are supposed to produce in you - confidence or energy - I can produce naturally. The only problem is going to sleep. But I never take pills... I drink herbal teas.

99. I'm not going to compromise my artistic integrity. (Spoken in her documentary Truth or Dare.)

100. I went to New York. I had a dream. I wanted to be a big star. I didn’t know anybody. I wanted to dance. I wanted to sing. I wanted to do all those things. I wanted to make people happy. I wanted to be famous. I wanted everybody to love me. I wanted to be a star. I worked really hard and my dream came true.

101. The cross is a very powerful symbol and it symbolizes suffering, but it also is connected to a person who was loving and sharing and his message was about unconditional love. I tried to take a powerful image and use it to draw attention to a situation that needs attention. For me, we all need to be Jesus in our time. Jesus' message was to love your neighbor as yourself and these are people in need.

102. Maybe I'm just a gay man inside a woman's body! (Talking to Michael Parkinson in November '05 interview)

103. I don't care if you have a small dick, as long as you know how to use that stick. (From The Girlie Show)

104. David Bowie has a huge influence on me because his was his first concert I went to see. I remember watching him and thinking I didn't know what sex he was, and it didn't matter. Because one minute he was wearing body stockings - the whole Ziggy Stardust thing - and the next minute he was the Thin White Duke in white double-breasted suits, and there's something so androgynous about him. And I think androgyny, whether it's David Bowie or Helmut Berger, that has really really influenced my work more than anything.

105. When I got my first paycheck, $5'000 or something. I bought a Leger and I bought a Frida Kahlo self-portrait, but I don't know which came first. But I remember buying it and I had just gotten married and it looked completely out of place in my house in Malibu.

106. When in doubt act like god.

107. What else is there for me to conquer? Hopefully my ego. How will I know when I've succeeded? When I stop caring what anyone thinks.

108. My pussy has nine lives.

109. I think I have a dick in my brain. I don't need to have one between my legs.

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